A LOGISTIC LAW OF GROWTH AS A BASE FOR METHODS OF COMPANY'S LIFE CYCLE PHASES FORECASTING

A logistic law of growth can be easily identified in natural sciences, social sciences, physics or technology. In economy, the logistic law of growth, expressed by a logistic law function (S-curve) can be employed to describe the processes of economic growth or a company's cycle of life. However, according to the fact, that in almost all economic phenomena values cannot be limited, the logistic function often doesn't fully work, mainly due to the problem of "limited growth" (expressed by an asymptote). This inconvenience can be avoided by employing the modified S-curve (loglogistic function). In this paper we present the application of the S-curve, as well as the modified S-curve in company's life cycle forecasting. We have also proposed our own method of iterative estimation, which can be used to estimate all functions' parameters, especially those, which cannot be converted to linear form.